


Remember Me

by ThatOneAwkwardGirlInTheCorner



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Romance, Swearing, Temporary Amnesia, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:27:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24073678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatOneAwkwardGirlInTheCorner/pseuds/ThatOneAwkwardGirlInTheCorner
Summary: He was gone. Lost in the abyss. He tried to reach for his hand, but it wasn’t enough.“LANCE!”He screamed his name as he watched him fall. The others had no idea and Keith didn’t know what to do, what to say. He lost Lance. He lost him on that stupid mission, that he thought was mostly a waste of time. He should have listened to Lance. They should have moved on, should have stayed in the castle if they knew what was going to happen.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 40





	1. Chapter 1

He was gone. Lost in the abyss. He tried to reach for his hand, but it wasn’t enough.

“LANCE!”

He screamed his name as he watched him fall. The others had no idea and Keith didn’t know what to do, what to say. He lost Lance. He lost him on that stupid mission, that he thought was mostly a waste of time. He should have listened to Lance. They should have moved on, should have stayed in the castle if they knew what was going to happen.

* * *

Keith slashed his sword against the robot. He had advanced a lot since he first arrived in the castle of lions a year ago. Only Shiro was above him in levels. The other paladins weren’t as engaged in combat. They, of course, fought when they had to, but they had other hobbies that they found more important. Pidge spent a lot of time in the science lab. Working on different types of devices and upgrades for the lions. Hunk helped her sometimes but mostly spent time in the kitchen. Shiro, when he wasn’t training with Keith, spent time debriefing with Allura. And Coran? Who knew what he was up to nowadays. He was everywhere where he could be. Except for in the training room, Keith would be surprised if he found him training in there one day.

Lance? Lance was a mystery. At least to Keith. He would sometimes find him late at night getting his ass kicked by the training robot, screaming in frustration. Then the next morning he would be his “normal” happy self. At least what was normal according to Keith. Keith knew he worked hard. Probably harder than Keith himself and he really wanted to encourage him and help him train, but only if he wasn’t so socially awkward. He could just ask him,

but that would be weird wouldn’t it? They had been together for a year, fighting this war, but they still never really hung out. Some days all of them could have movie nights or play some video games, but then directly after both Keith and Lance would retreat to their rooms.

Lance always looked so happy being around people, but still, Keith wondered if it was because he was so lonely inside?

* * *

The night before the mission, he had found Lance training by himself again. He could hear the clanging and shots being fired before he even got to the door. When he got closer, and the door “whooshed” open, he could hear grunts and groans coming from Lance himself.

“Just die you stupid robot!” He gritted between his teeth. 

With one last shot, the robot fell to the ground.

“ _Finally_ , start training level-”

“Stop training sequence!” Keith shouted before Lance could finish his command.

He turned around and glared in his direction. Keith could tell that his eyes were unfocused because of the lack of sleep.

Lance sighed before he asked, “what are you doing here Keith?” He didn’t sound mad, just exhausted.

“You need sleep Lance, we have a big day tomorrow.”

Lance put his bayard away and walked up to Keith. Standing in front of him Keith could see the inches that he taunted him with. Shit, Lance really was taller than him.

“We wouldn’t have a _big_ day tomorrow if it wasn’t for you!” He spat in Keith’s face. 

He was right. This mission wasn’t anything really important. Just some data to collect from a _seemingly_ abandoned ship that had popped up on their radar. Shiro had suggested for Keith to go get it since he was quick, but he also didn’t want him to go alone. Keith had then suggested for Lance to come with, which had started many complaints from Lance. Keith had only suggested him because he wanted to spend more alone-time with him. It ended with Lance losing the argument and being forced to accompany Keith on the _seemingly_ innocent mission.

“Oh, I’m sorry that I suggested that you could come with me to get more experience!” Why couldn’t he just see that he was doing it for his own good? That he just wanted to help him. Sure, maybe he should have been the bigger person and not yelled at him, but that wasn’t Keith’s forte.

“Okay, so you only wanted me with you because you think I need to improve, to be better? Oh, I see how it is, Mr. I-am-so-naturally-good-at-everything!” With that said, he stormed off and Keith wouldn’t see him until right before the mission.

* * *

“You ready?” 

Keith nodded. He could do this. It was just a simple in and out situation.

Shiro gave him a hug before letting him go. Keith watched as Lance stood to his right talking to Pidge and Hunk who was patting him on the shoulder and smiling wide. Lance also looked really happy, at least happier than last night when he saw Keith. 

Keith really did bring out the bad in people huh?

Allura cleared her throat and clapped her hands together. “So,” she said. “Remember that this ship appears to be abandoned and probably does not have any oxygen, so do not in any case take of your helmets.” She looked extra carefully at Lance who’s smile disappeared from his face.

“I know Princess,” he said with an exhausted voice. He still hadn’t gotten any sleep?

Then Pidge stepped forward. “From what I can see from the scans, there isn’t an easy way in so you have to blast your way in. And with this pod, I don’t think that will be a problem since I have upgraded it with a blasting mechanism thingy.” She chuckled. “As soon as you get inside the control panel should be in the front of the ship. To collect the data you have to just stick this USB looking thing into the outlet that fits, seems easy enough right?” Lance nodded. She gave the USB to him and hugged him tightly. 

“Be careful okay?”

“Of course Pidgeon,” he said with a smirk. She cringed at the nickname and then turned to Keith. “Take care of each other out there. Even if I haven’t seen anything on my scans, we don’t know if it’s booby-trapped or something.” Keith nodded at the same time as Lance said, “don’t worry, we got this!”

With that, they walked into the pod. Lance stayed back for a couple of seconds to wave enthusiastically to their friends, whilst Keith continued to walk into it. He sat down in the piloting seat. He heard the door close and suddenly Lance was sat behind him. He didn’t question it when Lance didn’t start complaining about how Keith was the one piloting.

“Let’s get this show on the road mullet!” Keith frowned, he didn’t have a mullet, but he still pushed the thrusters and they were on their way. 

The seemingly abandoned ship wasn’t so far away. It had taken about 30 doboshes to get there. The ship was dark and purple like the galra’s. It wasn’t a fighter but it wasn’t as big as the one Shiro had been on in his captivity. Keith slowly flew closer. After rounding the whole ship he realized that Pidge was right, there really weren’t any entrances.

“Huh, guess we’re blasting?” Lance said looked at him quizzically. Keith nodded, “We’re blasting.”

Carefully and not with too much force he pushed the button that sent a light blast towards the ship, which created a hole big enough for them to fit through, but not too big so there would still be a ship left after it was done. “Parking” the pod outside the hole, Keith got out and jumped into the hole, listening for Lance following him.

When they were both inside of the ship, Keith turned to Lance to give him a smile, which wasn’t returned. Instead, Lance started his jet pack and flew towards the front of the ship. The ship didn’t have any oxygen or gravity, great. It also seemed like it was bigger than it did when they were outside of it. He guessed it was because they had never really been this close to these ships before blasting them out of the sky, let alone inside them. Without knowing what else to do, Keith followed him.

After flying around for a little while Keith realized that Lance was so confident in knowing where to go, or at least he seemed to be. “How do you know where to go?” Keith finally asked him.

“Pidge gave me a map,” Lance answered

She had given him a map, when? And how did Keith not know about it? 

“She did? She never told me that?” Lance just kept flying, paying Keith no mind.

“She didn’t? Guess she forgot to mention it.” There was something that he wasn’t telling him, but Keith didn’t think that it was a good idea to start a fight out here, with Lance of all people. Keith stopped abruptly when he realized that he was about to fly into Lance who had turned around.

“Listen, Keith, you don’t have to be suspicious of me here. Pidge gave me this late last night to the first one of us she could find which happened to be me. And I was meant to tell you, but I’m an asshole, so I didn’t. Can you please just trust me?” He pleaded, his eyes looked tried again like he didn’t want to fight either.

“Yeah, it’s fine. I just wish you would’ve told me.” Keith didn’t like being left out on important things like this. Lance really looked apologetic. “I know and I’m really sorry okay? I promise to tell you next time,” he gave him a small smile before continuing forwards. Maybe it was fine between the two of them and Keith was just imagining it?

“The control panel should be up here,” he said and pointed towards a door. “Would you give me a hand with this?” Keith nodded and flew forward with the force of his jetpack. The two of them grabbed the door from each side and pulled. The door opened with a bang and inside was a wreck of damage to the ship and electricity. They couldn’t have seen this damage outside of the ship since it was internal.

“Okay so, how do we get through this without dying?” Lance asked and looked at Keith. “We just have to be careful and not touch the electricity or the rough edges or we will get impaled or electrocuted…” Lance chuckled, “yeah that sounds about right, come on!” Lance grabbed his hand and started flying slowly over and under the sharp edges and dodging the electricity. Keith’s heart skipped a beat when Lance grabbed his hand, but he shook it off and followed him instead. Lance turned around and frowned as he felt Keith letting go of his hand. Keith shrugged his shoulders as of asking “what?”. Lance shook his head and just continued agilely through the wreckage.

“Finally!” Lance let out a breath of relief as he stopped in front of the control panel. There were many different buttons and think that really didn’t make any sense, it probably would if Pidge or Hunk was there. 

“Let’s just get this over with,” Keith said and held his hand out, waiting for the USB to be dropped in his palm. He looked up at the boy next to him when he didn’t get it. “Lance, the USB?” Lance sighed, “why do you have to do it? Why can’t I?” He whined like a child. Keith really just wanted to get this over with and go back home, he also didn’t want to fight, so he made a “go ahead” gesture which made Lance light up like a child on Christmas. This was where everything went wrong. The outlet was booby-trapped and a small bomb went off, which resulted in Keith’s jetpack being damaged and Lance’s giving up completely, plus both of their helmets had cracks in them. “Shit!” Lance screamed as he fell towards the dark abyss that was space.

Keith had his right hand on one very sharp and rough edge, his other hand, held Lance’s tightly. 

“Lance, hold on!” He calls as he tries to pull them up. It would have been easier if it wasn’t for his jetpack malfunctioning thanks to the trap and they hadn’t gotten the intel either. Maybe this whole thing was a trap? A setup.

“Keith, you can’t pull up both of us!” Keith looked down to see Lance dangling beneath him. Yes, he could! He had to. He couldn’t lose Lance. He still hadn’t gotten the chance to spend more alone-time with him, he hadn’t even got time to open up to him, and for him to open up to Keith.

“Yes I can, please just let me!” Keith shouted back. He couldn’t let him fall. Couldn’t let him suffocate in space. He heard the wreckage shift above him and the cracks in his and Lance’s helmets multiply.

“Keith, look at me!” Keith looked at him. There was smoke coming out of his jetpack, quiet sounds of cracking from his helmet. And Lance? He didn’t look tired anymore. He actually looked happy? Maybe not happy, but content?

“Keith, if you don’t let go, we will both die and the universe will lose an amazing pilot and paladin.” Keith felt tears prickle in his eyes. “If I let go, the universe will also lose an amazing pilot and paladin!” He reasoned. Lance chuckled, “Keith? We both know that the universe can cope without me, okay?” No, no they couldn’t! Lance was the reason Keith could wake up every day. He was the reason all of them weren’t dead. He is Keith’s voice of reason when he’s about to fling himself into the sun.

“Lance, please, we can’t- _I_ can’t lose you!” Lance’s eyes widened at Keith’s words. He smiled, before letting go of Keith’s hand.

“I’m sorry…”

“LANCE!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the second chapter of this story, I hope that you will like it!

Fuck, this wasn’t meant to happen. It was supposed to be a simple mission. Just an in and out. It was supposed to take a varga at the max. Lance was not supposed to die.

After Lance had let go of Keith’s hand. He had been able to heave himself up, and Red had been there a dobosh later. If Lance had just waited for _one_ dobosh more, he would still be alive. It hurt. It hurt going back to the castle, in Red. They were probably expecting something to be wrong since Red had gone after them. How could he come back alone and tell them that their fellow paladin, their friend Lance was gone?

Keith didn’t understand, how could it turn out like that? One moment he was alive and smiling at him, and the next he was suffocating in space. He felt broken, torn apart and like his head had been bashed in. He should have been the one who died, not Lance! Lance had so much left to live for! He was the one who was most excited to go home to Earth, the one who got homesick the most! _Or at least the one who talked about it the most_ . It would be weird not to feel his presence anymore. Weird not to hear his voice. He would even miss his insults, even when he called his hair a mullet, _which it wasn’t_.

Telling the team the bad news didn’t go smoothly. They all cried, everyone except for Keith. It wasn’t that he had cried his eyes out the moment he had died, or even after as he was flying home with Red, he wanted to cry, why couldn’t he? He wasn’t heartless, just devastated because of Lance. Why couldn’t it have been him? He felt the cold stares from Allura who probably wished that he was the one who should have died. He didn’t blame her, she was right. Lance was the better paladin, the calmer one, the one who didn’t “shoot first and ask questions later”. He wasn’t a hothead like Keith. He was a normal boy, who had a normal family waiting for him on earth.

* * *

“Keith.”

Shiro had found him in his room, Lance’s room not his own. He had been on his way to his own room after breaking the news to the team. He couldn’t handle tears, so he had to go away for a while. When walking to his own room, he instead stopped in front of Lance’s. It was unlocked. After a couple of ticks of hesitation, he went inside. The room was filled with knick-knacks of their trips and missions, but it also had pictures. The pictures were mostly of Lance himself, but some were with Pidge and Hunk, Shiro and Allura, and there was even one really goofy one with Coran that made him chuckle. One picture stood out particularly. The picture was slightly hidden behind the one with Coran, and on it was Keith. He was asleep on the common room couch. His arms crossed over his chest with his eyebrows in a tight frown. It was very weird to find a picture of himself sleeping, but it was especially weird to find the picture in Lance’s room, hidden behind pictures of their friends. It probably meant that no one was supposed to find it and especially not Keith himself.

“Keith?”

Keith turned around to find Shiro standing in the doorway. His eyes were swollen and red from the crying. 

“I saw you walking away and I just wanted to make sure you’re okay, but since I’m finding you in… _His_ room, I’m guessing you’re not?” Keith couldn’t say anything. No words came to mind. He just kept staring at the picture of himself in his hand.

“What have you got there?” Shiro asked and walked up to Keith. He quietly gasped as he saw the picture in his hand. “Did you know about this?” Keith shook his head. “He really looked up to you Keith-”

“Is that why he keeps a picture of me in his bedroom!?” Shiro cringed at the loud outburst. Keith turned towards him with a desperate look in his eye, “what does this mean Shiro? What does this mean!?” Keith shoved the picture into his face. “Now I’ve lost him and can never ask!” The tears came then. All it took was a stupid picture and unanswered questions for Keith to let his emotions flow.

* * *

The picture wasn’t forgotten the next day, and neither was Lance’s death. Keith had told Shiro not to tell the team about the picture, not that it really mattered, he just wanted something personal between Lance and him to himself. Shiro had then proceeded to tell him to put the picture back since it wasn’t his and it was wrong to steal from the dead. Keith didn’t listen.

A couple of days later, the team had prepared a grave for Lance. That wasn’t exactly a grave, but actually a pod with some things to remind him by. Things like clothes, some flowers and of course the blue lion slippers. They also left a picture of him outside the pod. Hunk and Pidge even decided to record a video that would honor him, but also send a message to his family. They asked if Keith would like to join them, but he didn’t feel worthy to be in that video if it was being shown to his family members. He instead went back to Lance’s room where he would lie in his bed for hours listening to the vlogs he had made.

_Hi guys! I’m back and today I can’t wait to tell you what we got up to! So today our mission was about going to this super cool place, but not as cool as the mermaid planet, I mean nothing can beat that not even Keith’s smile… Wait, erase that-!_

Keith paused the video. Did he just imagine that or had Lance complimented his smile? He played that part again and realized that he was right, he had complimented his smile. It didn’t necessarily mean anything. A picture of him sleeping and a compliment of his smile didn’t mean anything at all, but it did make him wonder. Looking through more and more videos, he found more of Lance slipping in a comment or two about Keith’s silky hair or even _cute_ pout. He had never heard him talk about Allura the way he was talking about Keith. Why didn’t it make Keith feel uncomfortable? It just made him confused. Who in their right mind would throw insults at someone and then talk about them like they hung the moons and stars in a private vlog? Right, it was a private vlog and Keith shouldn’t have looked through them, but he couldn’t help himself. He missed him too much. If the others knew what he was doing in his spare time, they would absolutely tell him to stop. 

He pressed play on another video, that was dated later than the last.

_Heya! I did something stupid… You might wonder what it is and I’m about to tell you, I just need a moment…_

He looked down at his lap. It looked like he was fiddling with something.

_Soooo… I found Keith… Sleeping… On the common room couch…_

Oh no.

Lance sighed.

_He just looked so adorable that I couldn’t help myself…_

He looked into the camera and then showed the thing he was fiddling with. It was the picture, the same one that Keith kept in one of his pouches on his belt. What was going on, and why couldn’t Keith stop watching? Lance almost looked ashamed as he showed the camera the picture.

_I know that you’re probably disappointed in me mama. I can hear your voice, “don’t take pictures of people that are unaware!”_

Lance imitated his mother in a whiny voice and chuckled.

_God, I miss you guys so much. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great up here with the guys, fighting aliens and doing cool crap all the time. But I can’t forget that we’re in a war, and_ some _people keep reminding me…_

He said the last part whilst looking at the picture in his hand.

_It’s not just him that makes me feel insecure, it’s everything! Like do I deserve to be here? Am I really good enough to be here? I know that you would tell me that I earned this spot, that without me we wouldn’t be here since I was the one Blue opened up to. I bet if I hadn’t been there, one of the others would have piloted her, probably Keith since he felt her quintessence._

He was wrong. None of them could pilot blue like he could! None of them were worthy enough. He hadn’t even thought how Blue was feeling in all of this, she had lost her paladin, she had also lost Lance. Keith was so selfish, he knew he was, only thinking of himself and how he feels, not even caring about the others and their emotions. Hell, the first thing he had done after telling them was just walking away. 

* * *

5 months later…

“Listen up paladins, today we have another planet to travel to, and we have to get them to join our coalition. Understood?” Allura asked before everyone nodded, everyone except for Keith who was stuck in his dream world. The world where he had fallen in love with his dead teammate. Yeah, Keith was pathetic. After watching 5 months’ worth of everything from happy to sad vlogs by Lance, he couldn’t deny it anymore.

“Keith, are you listening?” Allura hadn’t been acting like herself since the death of Lance. He thought it was because it might’ve hit her the most, but maybe it was just because it had hit Keith the most? You see, Keith had barely done anything else but watching the vlogs over and over again. He was sure that Allura must hate him, or at least be severely frustrated with him.

“Sorry Allura, I was just…” He didn’t know what to say, he didn’t even have a real explanation. Because yeah, he sounded totally sane saying that he was in love with a dead person. Maybe he had been in love with him from the beginning? Or at least liked him? Keith knew that Lance had liked him in some way, even though he hadn’t explicitly said it in his vlogs, he had more like _hinted_ at it.

After the brief meeting, Allura had asked him to stay and talk with her in private. Keith reluctantly watched his other friends go, who in return gave him a mix of pitying and encouraging smiles. Once there were only the two of them, Allura spoke up. 

“Keith, I have not been fair towards you and I know that. I hope you know that it had nothing to do with you being part galra. I am over that, I promise. The thing that concerns me, or irritates me more like, is the fact that you are more grumpy and distant than ever.”

She walked closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder, “listen, I understand that it is hard, believe me, I do! I am still not over that he is gone. I still find myself calling out to him in battle or to ask him something about Earth,” she chuckled. “The point is that I know that you are hurting Keith, but we still have to work as a team, do you understand?” Keith nodded. He was very nervous and anxious about her wanting to talk to him, but afterward, he felt better because of her words. He didn’t like to be in a “fight” with her. 

“Suit up and we will reconvene with the others in 10 doboshes.” 

“Yes, I’ll be here,” with that being said, Keith went back into his room. He had stopped sleeping in Lance’s after Pidge called him out on it two months ago.

After suiting up he had reconvened with the others as Allura said. In the lion hangar, everyone was stood in front of their respective lions, and Allura in a pink and white suit outside of Blue. She had become the new blue paladin, after Lance. She had said that it was going to be a tough spot to fill, but Keith and the others knew she would be amazing as a paladin and she was. She was almost as good as Lance after only a week of flying with Blue. It was weird to see Blue, but hear the voice of Allura, but it was just something that they all had to get used to.

* * *

The planet they were going to was called Zolrarth. It was a very industrial looking planet, but the people were very accepting of strangers, even people who were galra, or part galra in Keith’s case. Compared to other planets, they weren’t greeted with big ceremonies or parties from the king and/or queen but instead, they had to land in what they suspected to be a completely deserted wasteland. They soon realized that it wasn’t completely deserted when you could see the lights from the city light up said wasteland. It would probably take about 10 doboshes to walk there.

“This planet is very known for their reproduction night clubs,” Coran told them. “They are a very _open_ people, if you know what I mean,” he waggled his eyebrows, which made Pidge make a disgusted face at the same time as Hunk looked at her with a confused look on his face. Allura rolled her eyes at him. “Since we have arrived at night, we should find someplace to sleep and find their leader tomorrow, sound good?” Everyone agreed.

Then the whole team was off into the city. Pidge hid the lions under a cloaking mechanism she had invented for her own lion. Allura had told them to not really trust these people since most of them were thieves and space pirates. Keith had no idea why Allura would want the Zolrarthians in their coalition if the majority of them were criminals. 

They had split off into two groups; Allura, Coran, and Shiro. Hunk, Pidge, and Keith. In the city, he saw all types of aliens. They really were known for picking them up at street corners, as you would say back on Earth. He was walking with Pidge and Hunk who were running around looking at all the cool tech, and food, in Hunk’s case. Keith wasn’t really interested in what the planet had to give. He guessed the whole cyberpunk vibe of it all was pretty cool. It really felt like he was in the future. He just wished that there weren’t so many people, because if there weren’t, he wouldn’t have lost sight of Pidge and Hunk.

“Hunk? Pidge?” He tried to call for them, but he really couldn’t see them anywhere. He walked past a bunch of food stands where the salesmen were practically attacking him into buying something. He slipped away by Zigzagging through the people and then winding up in a thin alleyway where people were coming out of different buildings that played loud music and were making out against the walls. It really wasn’t Keith’s kind of crowd. 

“Hey there, do you wanna have a taste?” An alien said whilst trapping him up against the wall and licking their lips seductively. Next to them there where two aliens who were eating each other’s faces, not literally.

“Uhm, no, I-I’m good,” he stuttered out and went under the alien’s arm to escape their clutch. Unfortunately, he didn’t get far until he felt an arm grabbing him.

“Hey, let go of-” He was interrupted by the very attractive face of the person who had grabbed him. “Sorry, just thought that I would save you from this place, you didn’t exactly look comfortable.” He had a cheeky smile on his face, it reminded him of Lance, shit, Lance would have loved this place. He always loved loud and lively places.

“Can I show you someplace fun?” Keith never really trusted or followed strangers, Rolo was an exception, and so was this guy apparently since he followed him blindly and wordlessly. Something was just so familiar in the way he acted, the way his broad shoulders moved, and the way his hand felt in Keith’s. He had never in his life felt so safe and sound with a stranger.

Why did the man remind him so much of the dear friend he had lost 5 months ago?

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and thank you for reading my first ever public post. Please give it some kudos if you liked it and feel free to leave some comments as well. I don't have an uploading schedule but will upload the next chapter as soon as it is done.
> 
> Thank you again!


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